5 Reasons Tablets Suck and You Won't Buy One

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unwanted

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"I always thought the tablet pc was a stupid idea. I could see the ipad doing better in sales, because it is an apple. Tablets are completely useless."

Why... Tablet PCs are a great idea it is just the implamentation atm which is stupid mainly for the reasons noted above.

And I think you mean Tabelet PCs are completely useless as Tabelets (as used with a regular desktop) are far from useless and many industries simply couldn't exist now days without them.
 

slyone1

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Agreed - But look like many still don't get it.

The Tablet PC failed because consumers didn't see the cost benefit of using this form factor running full Windows when they can get a cheaper Notbook to do the same (minus the note scribble in some stupid meeting, like consumers care about that). It failed because they were bulky, ugly, heavy, cheap looking device that required a stylus to use. Battery was horrible, software for stylus was horrible. Windows as it is still today is designed for mouse input first. That's not going to attract the mass consumer!

Pen Computing, Tablet PC, Slate, UMPC, Laptops that swivel around, none were compelling enough for consumers to take notice. I've never once since Bill Gates made that failed quote in 2001, never once did I see a Tablet PC in the wild.

What Apple is doing is different: They're saying forget all the "Tablet PCs" attempts in the past, and Bill Gates failed vision many times over. See this Pad thing, it is not trying to replace a "PC" in the traditional sense of the word. It's more like a multifunctional appliance/gadget device that can also allow for "PC" functionality (content creation) if you so chose. But it is more related to an iPhone or iPod Touch (or even a Kindle) than a traditional PC. Until you get that concept, you will never get the iPad.

Now the one dimensional Kindle has been very successful (according to Amazon) for its ability to just read books. Now if the one dimensional Kindle can be successful, how do you think the iPad will fare?
 
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Funny thing.... you said that reason the iphone took off it was because of the interface... but yet have you notice that it is the same interface that's on the iPad? I am not so sure it won't take off. They have sold MILLIONS! and MILLIONS! of ipod touches... I guess you qualify that as not successful. I get some of your points, others are just some rambling just to say something, not something productive and useful. Educate yourself about why apple is now selling on pre0order over 10,000 iPads per day (according to several business sources) If that doesn't make a tablet successful; I don't know what will.
 
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Strange that everyone can decide the ipad is so bad before it is even released? I think it is missing the point to even compare the ipad to other tablets: it seems more of a paradigm shift, a new market, in the same manner as the iphone couldn't be compared to the conventional smartphone concept.
 

sudeshc

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i think its a good device for some one in need to do little but important things with touch.
such as fashion designers add makers even can be helpful of writers so that they can easily put there thoughts on paper, they don't need those 40k graphics card or i7 processor for that neither they need vista or win7.
 

lotri

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If I were to buy a tablet, I'd prefer to buy one with a keyboard attached. It's easier, imo, to type with a normal keyboard, and normal tablet laptops also protect the screen better.

And of course, the GAMES!
 

neiroatopelcc

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First off - I've never been in the marked for a tablet - and probably won't be for quite some time. In fact I don't even own a laptop.

Now, for the article (disguised as news).

I don't use office productivity suites unless I have to - notepad is plenty good for me. But I know for a fact that MS Office 2007 has been designed to be used on touchscreens - that's why they've made those wierd tabs and 'hidden' all features in them. It might've not worked (can't tell ; don't use) but they ARE trying.

As for the OS part - aren't there more vendors? What about android or chromeos - can't one of those take over?

As for the iphone popularity claim - well I'm still convinced it's successful because of marketing. Same's the ipod - why else did everybody have an ipod when they could've gotten a creative device that was much easier to live with and two third the price?

The app store is a good idea gone wrong. Microsoft tried it years back too (for windows) but failed completely - whereas apple only has its censoring engine (and reputation) working against it.
 
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"The industry went from "who gives a hoot" about tablets to "wow, the iPad sucks" in a mere two months?""

They did? What industry is TN talking about?? Who said "iPad sucks" or is "underpowered" let alone "the industry" saying it as an ensemble? And even if they did based on what? It's not even out! This is prop up the straw-man, knock him down, and write an article about it.
 

Sandbags

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Not quite the list I was expecting. 2 and 4 are very close to the same, and #1 is simply a result, not a "reason."

Here's my reasons why tablets won't seriously compete with the iPad.

1: it's a CONVENIENCE device. It's intent is to supplement both your phone and PC, not be "another" PC. If I have to baby it, patch it, tweak it, manage it, etc, it's not convenient.

2: Instant-on/always-on. For a "living room" device like the iPad, that's half it;s use case in my mind. The laptop is a pain, waiting for it to boot, waiting for it to connect, launching apps, by the time I'm ready to use it, I'll have forgotten why i booted it up. Also, it's simply not worth a 3-5 minute boot cycyle (up and down) to do a 20 second search on IMDB, or send a quick e-mail or make a note. The Fact that Full OS hibernate as well is one more drawback, but with an iPad, i know instantly if someone loggs on to chat, sends me a message, or i get some other alert. It's like having my phone in the living room with me to get notices, but I have a larger cleaer interface and don't suffer on a cramped 4" screen.

3: H.264. nuff said. If you're tablet is close in price to the iPad, it won;t have 720p or 1080p video output of H.264 video. Most of them proposed won't even handle H.264 at all. With WebKit and HTML5 fast becoming the new media standard, investment in anything that can't do that today better be a throw-aweay device price... Tablets are not at that price.

4: size and weight. If it has a swivle screen, it's notebook thick. I can slide an iPad into my laptop case, but I can't put 2 laptops in it, nor do I want to. I've not seen a tablet with multi-touch proposed yet that is as think or as light as the iPad, not under $900 anyway...

5: Power cables and batteries. iPad uses the dock connector, and can charge off USB or an outlet anywhere, further these cables are ubiquitous, and if I've forgotten one, either someone has one to loan for 30 minutes to charge, or I can buy one for $5-10 anywhere. Full OS tablets require a brick, and have far less battery life. Even if they can last 10 hours, it's another brick to carry around, and they're not stocked commonly anywhere and use proprietary connectors. A replacement in a pinch is not easy to find, and typically requires a $120 universal charger. This is a real issue if I want to have a charger at the office, and leave another in the car, as well as the one at home. I don;t bring my iPhone cables with me, since I already HAVE one everywhere (3 at home, 1 in each car, 1 on office desk, and a spare in the suitcase just in case) and I only bought one of those seperately and it came with a 110v and a CAR adapter for $10.

6: Wireless N and bluetooth. Almost none of the tablets have WiFi n, which is a huge issue for high def video. The ones that do often lack bluetooth, making is less useful for chat/video chat (and yes, the iPad CAN do video chat, using a simple bluetooth camera).

7: application costs. Even if they make a full OS tablet that solves ALL of the above issues, and at a comperable (within $100) price as an iPad, the fact I'll still need to buy unique applications to run on it, completely seperate from my desktop, means that pad comes burdened with a few hundred dollars in excess costs. Worse, every app I add slows it down and eats the battery, since there's no background app controls, and no reseounce management in the OS designed with the idiea of quick, light, and long life from the ground up. At least with the iPad, the 60-70 apps the wife and I already share on our iPhones (90% of them free, not one over $2 yet), would also work on the ipad for free, and the next 2 we buy in addition. Any app I'd likely buy for the iPad won't exceed $10. I might spend $30 on apps total over the life of my iPad, and I;d spend that on the Windows machine 3 times over before I even have it connected to WiFi at the house...
 

scuba dave

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This might be the most accurately written topic i've ever read.. This article completely addresses problems i've seen over the last decade! I've wanted to purchase a tablet for years! The idea that i could not halt my productivity, as well as have a mobile venue for entertainment on a platform that isn't as embarrassing simple or inflexible as a mobile phone has been a permenant thorn in my mind. But no one has yet to implement it in a REASONABLE fashion. The closest i ever got was a government Dell Axim v3, and i tell you what.. I won't get any closer than that without testing the platform myself for awhile. It's gonna take more than ideas and possiblity to get my money this time. I need something that WORKS!
 
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Apple has an arsenal of great apps at its disposal which will make it very competitive compared to the tablets with full blown operating systems. All of their apps are made for touch screens. I'm still angry that there isn't a USB input or Flash support. The lack of those features is making me hesitate!
 

gorehound

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number one should be that all ebooks suck and they are going to hurt the bookstores that employ folks (maybe a friend of yours) in your local town.

they also kill the collectible 1st edition off
they also can't be resold years later at a profit.
they also are not supposed to be resold at all.

i won't ever buy any kind of IPAD.I won over 1200 books and many are 1st editions.

makikng every thing digital will only cause pain in the end for millions whose livelihood depends on physical things.
stores,UPS,manufacturing,resellers,etc.
 

antisyzygy

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What I think needs to happen is that a tablet PC needs to become a virtual desk top, and by that I mean literally a desk top. Replace sticky notes, clock, memos, calendar, calculator, and paper notebook with a tablet PC and throw in some decent ability to do email, and internet browsing similar to an Android phone. Even better would be writing->text capability. The OS GUI needs a total rewrite for this so thumbs up to the article for pointing this out. Also, if it was below 500 dollars then they would sell like wild-fire.
 

totenkopf

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Tablets are certainly lacking in many ways. And yes, they do have a very high value for specific applications. The thing I like about tech is that one day, for instance, I fully expect to be able to walk into my room and say "toms hardware", have my computer wake from hibernation and open up tomshardware. Not only that, but i could ask it to read the headlines of todays articles to me (or ones it knows i haven't seen) and then allow me to select one and read it to me on command... all the while I can diligently fold my laundry myself and read tom's because my robot butler has fallen down the stairs and can't fold it for me. It will probably be because his user interface just wasn't their yet and they have problems getting powerful enough hardware into such a small package.

tablets will eventually "get there". It's going to be a few decades still before we innovate enough to get away from needing an all-in-one phoneputer. tablets, iphones, and the like are all representatives from their respective groups trying to fulfill that need. some are better than others. they don't all speak the same language yet and they can't offer everything we need. We are pretty close to having the hardware, but we need Apple, and perhaps more importantly MS to keep pushing the matter so we can eventually have the interface and software.

I think people should be more accepting. At the same time, This article sounded more like a "yeah the ipad isn't all that, but you can't have an opinion because you aren't part of the market" apology letter. The ipad does suck in a lot of ways, and I certainly wouldn't trade it's shortcomings for those of an archos, but it is going to stir up the market. I also think MS, as much as they drive standardization and interoperability with their huge market share, will need to divide and conquer. Stop trying to make one OS fit everything, and make an OS for each device (too expensive? maybe they can't afford not too?) then put them together... like a messy, messy puzzle at first... then like a mosaic later on. I feel like I should already have voice command and text to talk by now; I want my housemates to here me yelling "ukrainianbeerbreastporn.fart/trojan" at my browser.
 

unwanted

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they also kill the collectible 1st edition off
Oh no heaven forbid since everyone in the world is a collector!
they also can't be resold years later at a profit.
Heaven forbid we should be able to buy something without the ability to sell it for more then we paid at a later date!!
they also are not supposed to be resold at all.
What we buy something and are expected to not sell it off to someone else... what is the world coming to???

i won't ever buy any kind of IPAD.I won over 1200 books and many are 1st editions.
Gratz you collect books the rest of the 6 billion people in the world don't. Sure some do but others collect stamps others DVDs others games, people collect lots of things but the whole world isn't a book collector.

What do you do if you leave home... take a couple books you want to read but what if you decide later you wanted to read something else oh well to bad.... Heaven forbid we should be able to take all our books with us instead of having to pick out a few.

Ebooks are not going to cost everyone their jobs. There will always be many people that prefer a real book to an ebook. I myself prefer the feel and turning of a page in a real book to an ebook but I still love being able to have all my books in ebook format with me everywhere i go.

Ebooks can be annoying too like with more and more coputer hardware not coming with real manuals just PDF files on a cd which is really annoying if your just setting the thing up and just need to quickly browse through the manual to see something.

Ebooks are a great thing nad a good convienince for people that need that kind of thing and they by all means are not going to mean the end of the printed book industry.

If it was impossible to sell an ebook after you purchase it then big deal.... i buy a book to read the damn thing not in the hopes i can sell it for a profit in a few years or even just sell it to recover some of the cost. I want to read the thing so I pay for it I don't expect that I should have the right to recover some of that money i paid for later on.

Ebooks wont kill off printed media anymore then TV killed off Radio. They both have their markets and always will.

18 years ago in high school we were told how in the next few years we would be in a cashless society because of wonderfull EFTPOS. Well here I am 18 years later and 75% of the payments made where I work are still in cash. EFPTOS is great and I use it alot but I still use cash for things as well. They each have their benefits and uses just as do Ebooks and printed books.
 

alidan

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i didn't read everything, but i can say this, i have always wanted a tablet.

i like drawing, but i hate using paper and pencil because i smudge allot and my hand isn't steady so i cant do detail work easily. with a good tablet i could in theory.

look at the 1500-2000$ wacom monitors. if tablets were that precise, i would get one in a heart beat. because id love to sit in my couch, and draw. but i cant. and thats why i never bought one.

user interface wise, give me windows xp and i can do it. because i have a tablet that i use on the computer, and i have replaced my mouse for 6 months because i didn't want to buy a new one when it broke. so long as there is precision, i can deal with ui short comings.

and i would want a full os, namely windows xp, because i know damn near everything i want is made for it, and i don't have to buy special versions for it to be compatible. i swear to god if i had to re buy adobe master collection for a tablet compatible version, that would be the biggest deal breaker.
 

nebajnim

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Just as some have condemned the ipad before it has came out, others are singing its praises before it has came out. Neither makes sense. The "razor" thin laptops are still expensive as heck, but look better to me than an ipad, which is so limited in uses. Hell; when I have to write someone a personal letter I type it out. Typing is easier than using your hand. And touching a screen doesn't appeal that much to me, except for using it in some mouse oriented games that require speed it will just smudge up the screen. It is a further reach to get to the screen. Unless you are right on top of the display, it is almost uncomfortable to reach.

Many people still want keyboards: Why do smartphones continue to put out keyed and non keyed versions of new phones? A super thin laptop that was netbook sized and had a touch screen would be uber useful, but also uber expensive. These are the reasons a tablet won't be that big of a deal. So until then I'll stick to the 15"x1.25"x12" laptop that i'm typing on.
 

roholidays1

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Only when the new generation of batteries will appear on the market, then this tablets will dominate the market. Indeed, someone said above that a regular Joe usually uses its computer to browse the internet to read its mail and read newspaper. For this, if the tablet will last for several hours like cellphones do this days, they will be a hit. That's why new generation of Lithium batteries are necessary. To charge them in a couple of seconds, and last for 10 hours of continuous use. In auto industry were talks about this new batteries, so as soon they will appear, more gizmo's that will benefit from from using it too.
 
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This is pretty much the most short sighted article, I ever read on this page. I have tablet and am more than happy. The author draws the picture that you need tons of pieces to make real use of Stylus and Handwriting and a lot of money...
I never spent more than 700$ on my secondhand convertible tablets and still use it for all I need including (not too large) database, statistics, video etc.

You just need three or four apps - that's it.
For instance, as a student I have to read many articles. I do not print them anymore. I just mark everything with the highlighter and write my additional notes to it directly into the pdf. If I want to print original (hide annotations) I still can do it. Sure, you can use the mouse or a the pad, but don't tell me, you use then fingers highlighting stuff. (PDFAnnotator, Foxit or many other)

About commands in the OS. Admittedly, there is still no onboard solution for it, which is really satisfying. However, there is ritePen. Gestures on the screen and you get what you want- most people do it with their mouse, why not also with the stylus.

Thirdly, notes and mindmaps.
Sure you can do this with a keyboard, if you use a mindmapping programm, but what if you want to sketch an idea for a layout or design of anything? Do you use the mouse and the line tool?? I just draw it. I admit, I look like a small kid doing it, but I enjoy it.
Notes, I just have to say OneNote and InkSeine and however loves their Molskine.

Specific, but maths:
Ever sat in a lecture and tried to type big money theory formulas in latex while listening to the professor? I just write it down and let Win7 do the job to turn it into nice typo (which is latex as well).

The writer of the article has the major problem most people have, who also complain about design changes in software. "I am fast with what I use. I am not as fast using the new thing. Ergo, I rock and the new thing s***s".
As most humans are like that, myself included, also the tablet did not take off. You need to change the way to use it and most people have barrier in their head for learning methods on electronic devices. In fact, the geekier you are, the less pragmatic you become.

I have to conclude, that tomshardware is no the best place to find in depth opinion on mobile devices. Rather visit gottabemobile.com
 

ahslan

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I absolutely LOVE my convertible tablet!!! I have an old Fujitsu Lifebook t4010d and absolutely love it for using it as my school laptop. I can take notes by hand for my math and engineering classes and use it as a regular laptop to take notes for my other classes...and best of all is that it was dirt cheap....i bought it for $220 off ebay, and then spent $40 to buy ram for it...even though the specs on it arent crazy powerful, its still quick enough to use everyday for simple school work and web browsing...I really think its the perfect computer for the college student...dont understand why everyone doesnt one...it was cheap enough that I can afford having a separate gaming desktop and have the tablet for school work....
 

kronos_cornelius

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It is true, the tablet is a niche device. But I don't think the iPad is a tablet, it is more like an e-reader

I always have wanted a tablet for school and research. It would greatly help me reduce the amount of paper I use, but there are two problems I see with tables.
1. first as the OP mentions is software. I would need software that enables me to better manage the documents and notes on a table.
2. The price. tablets are always too expensive given the hardware you are getting, it always seems like a better investment to buy a regular laptop with higher performance than a tablet.

I like the HP tm2t. KDE's Okular looks like a great software to write notes to PDF, but that is on linux, and I like the handwriting to text tool that comes with Win7. So, I'll remain waiting for a good tablet.
 

unwanted

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The writer of the article has the major problem most people have, who also complain about design changes in software. "I am fast with what I use. I am not as fast using the new thing. Ergo, I rock and the new thing s***s".

It's just like QWERTY vs DVORAK. You can type faster using a DVORAK layout (since qwerty was actually designed to slow down tpying speed) however you do have to learn to type all over again using it and if you touch type then learn to touch type again as well as swap all the keys around if you don't touch type so you don't get confused as to which key is what which does take a while and is a hasstle so people don't do it.

I'm also happy using QWERTY so even if i could learn DVORAK in a week and be typing faster I still wouldn't bother just because QWERTY suits my needs just fine and I already know it. That however does not make DVORAK S**T it is still in fact better it is just my unwillingness to change which is the problem with it.

Anyone remember when palm pilots first came out? It didn't have handwriting recogntion so as well as having ot use a stylus you also have to write in a specific way a letter at a time and even the letters in a specific way. It seemed so much harder and more cumbersome thhen typing but I decided to go with it and once I got use to it I could actually write things on it faster then I could on other PDAs that had really tiny keyboards.

Tablet PCs do have a ways to go but once they get to the point where they are they best device for mobile data/computing.
 
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